


Of Plumbing and Pipe Goo

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Based on a True Story, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, because I'm not that lucky, except for the end, plumbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: Caitlin's barred from her own lab by Cisco's plumbing emergency. He'd better have a darn good reason.He does.
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Caitlin Snow
Comments: 11
Kudos: 30





	Of Plumbing and Pipe Goo

**Author's Note:**

> Based on my own plumbing emergency, which wasn't nearly as fluffy as this, I can assure you.

As she always did upon entering her lab, Caitlin headed right for the sink, barely noticing Cisco sitting cross-legged on the floor watching something on his phone. However, she did notice when he yelped, “Wait! Stop!” and leapt up to block her path.

She screeched to a halt. “What do you mean, stop? I have to wash my hands, Cisco, I’ve been using the monitors out there.” She made a face. “Do you even realize how many people touch those every day?”

“Yes, because you won’t stop telling me. Just - ” He flapped his hands at her. “Just go wash your hands in the bathroom, would you? Please, darling? Sweetheart? Light of my life?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”

He gave his most winning smile. “Because you love me?”

She declined to be won. “The bathroom is all the way in the hall. My sink is literally two steps away, once you move, plus it has the soap and the lotion that I like.” She scowled. “Did you break my sink?”

“No,” he said. “Of course not. I just may have … slightly … dropped something down the drain.”

“What did you drop?”

“Just a thing. That I don’t want to lose. So - ” He waved his phone. “Right now I’m learning how to remove a u-bend.”

“How long will it take?”

“According to YouTube, a jiffy.”

“Exactly how long is a jiffy?” she said suspiciously.

“Half of two jiffies. Come on. Just go wash your hands in the bathroom. Take your good soap and lotion if you want. By the time you’re done, I will be too.”

She sighed. Whatever it was he’d dropped down there, he didn’t want to risk it washing away, and it wasn’t as if she were about to perform surgery. She could use the bathroom sink for once. She reached out and grabbed her soap and lotion. “All right. Because I love you.”

He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, quick and sweet. “Jiffy. Promise.”

She came back a few minutes later, still rubbing hand lotion into her hands. He was just easing the u-bend off, letting the disgusting water inside gush into the bucket he’d set up for the purpose. He stuck his hand in - wearing gloves, she was relieved to see - and fished around for a moment, his shoulders tense.

Then he relaxed. “There you are,” he muttered, pulling out something very small and giving it a couple of shakes to get the worst of the sludge off it. “You little rascal.”

As sludge dripped from it, the thing in his hand glittered under the lights. She caught her breath. 

He whipped around, clamping his hands to his chest. “Caitlin!”

“What is that?” she asked. 

“Nothing. A thing. The thing I lost.”

“Is that a ring?”

“Uh - maybe.”

“May I see?”

“It’s got pipe-goo all over it.”

“I’d still like to see.”

He chewed his lower lip, then slowly opened up his hand. On the blue latex, still streaked with the same black sludge from the pipe that was now smeared all over his Star Trek t-shirt, sat a silver ring with glittering lines of sapphires and diamonds twisting around each other across the top. 

“Cisco,” she breathed.

A tentative smile crept over his face. “You like?”

“I love it. What - ” She looked up at him. “Were you going to - ?”

“Not like this,” he said. “So not like this. I have reservations for tomorrow night at Bianchi’s, and it was going to be this whole thing because I know how you like it when we do the whole thing, and I was going to walk you home in the moonlight and get down on one knee and - ” He waved his hand a little. “You know. Propose.”

She pressed her hand to her face, trying to catch her breath. They’d talked about this, of course, but she hadn’t been expecting it so soon.

“Hey,” he said. “Say something, would you? You’re going to say yes, right? Because if you aren’t, I’ve totally misjudged us.”

“No! I mean. Yes. I’m going to say yes.”

His face lit up. "Yeah?”

“Yes! I’ll marry you, yes!”

He started to reach for her, remembered his hands were still gross, and just leaned in to kiss her hard. She cradled his face in her hands, kissing him back. 

Her fiance. 

He pulled away from her after a moment. "You wanna wear it now?”

“Not on your life,” she said, backing up.

His face fell. “But - I took forever picking it out. I really want to see if it looks as good on you as I’ve been picturing.”

“It will,” she said. “But right now, it still has pipe goo all over it.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, looking at his hand. “I guess it does." 

"Clean it up, take me out to Bianchi’s, and propose in the moonlight.” She smiled into his eyes. “Then I’ll put it on.”

His smile returned, lighting up the whole room. “Promise?”

“Promise.” She looked over his shoulder, at the various pieces of plumbing spread out over the floor. “Also, when you put my sink back together, maybe you should put something like a basket in the drain so this doesn’t happen again.”

He looked at the mess, too. “You mean a strainer? Yeah. Good idea.”

FINIS


End file.
